Self-Esteem—Rochester Youth Development Study

Abstract

This entry describes a 9-item scale utilized within the extensive Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) to quantify the level of global self-esteem among participating youths. The instrument assesses core aspects of self-perception, including general satisfaction with oneself, feelings of self-worth, and perceived competence relative to peers.

The scale employs a 4-point Likert scale response format, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. Specific negative items are reverse coded during scoring to ensure that higher summed scores consistently indicate a greater sense of self-esteem. This measure is essential for longitudinal research tracking the development of personal attitudes and beliefs from adolescence into adulthood.

Keywords

Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, Youth Development, Personal Attitudes, Longitudinal Study, RYDS, Psychological Assessment, Violence Prevention.

Authors

The specific adaptation of the self-esteem items used in the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) were developed and administered by the RYDS research team. Although these items function as an adapted version, they are structurally and conceptually aligned with the seminal work of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), which is widely used in sociological and psychological research.

Purpose

The primary purpose of this 9-item instrument is to quantify the global sense of self-esteem held by young participants within the ongoing Rochester Youth Development Study. By assessing feelings of self-satisfaction, worthiness, and perceived competence, researchers aim to track how these fundamental psychological factors correlate with behavioral outcomes, particularly those related to delinquency and violence.

The scale serves as a foundational measure of psychological well-being, providing essential data for understanding the protective and risk factors associated with youth development across adolescence and into adulthood. Its inclusion in the RYDS allows for the exploration of causal pathways between self-perception and subsequent life trajectories, contributing valuable data to the field of developmental psychology and criminology.

Construct

The scale measures the core psychological construct of Self-Esteem, which is defined as an individual’s subjective evaluation of their own worth. This construct is intrinsically linked to concepts of Self-Efficacy and general feelings of self-acceptance, capturing a relatively stable, global assessment of an individual’s value and capabilities.

Specifically, the items are designed to tap into two related dimensions: perceived competence (e.g., the belief that one can do things as well as most other people) and generalized feelings of self-acceptance (e.g., satisfaction with oneself versus feelings of uselessness or being a “bad person”). This combination allows for a robust assessment of the youth’s internal attitudes and beliefs regarding their personal standing in the social environment.

Validity

While the source compendium entry does not provide specific empirical coefficients for validity, the items are widely recognized adaptations of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, which possesses extensive established construct validity across diverse populations. The consistent use of this 9-item scale within the rigorous, multi-decade framework of the Rochester Youth Development Study suggests strong face validity and content validity for assessing self-perception among high-risk youth populations.

The adaptation maintains the original structure designed to measure global self-esteem, ensuring that it remains conceptually linked to established measures used in developmental research. Its inclusion in a compendium focused on violence prevention further indicates its relevance and predictive utility for related behavioral outcomes.

Reliability

Specific reliability coefficients (e.g., Cronbach’s alpha) for this exact 9-item adaptation within the RYDS were not detailed in the source material. However, psychological scales derived from the highly reliable Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale typically demonstrate high internal consistency, often yielding alpha coefficients well above the acceptable threshold of 0.70. High reliability is expected due to the established nature of the items.

Furthermore, the repeated administration of this instrument across multiple waves of the longitudinal study provides implicit evidence of adequate test-retest reliability over time, showing that self-esteem scores are relatively stable within individuals, as expected for a global self-construct.

Factor Analysis

Based on the structure and content of the items, which are highly correlated with the standard RSES, the scale is typically considered to be unidimensional. This means that all nine items are theorized to load onto a single, overarching factor representing global self-esteem, rather than separate sub-domains of self-worth.

The adopted scoring methodology—which involves summing all item responses (after reverse coding where necessary) to produce a single final score—supports the interpretation of a single underlying construct. While specific confirmatory factor analysis results for the RYDS version were not included in the compendium, the consistent practice in self-esteem measurement suggests a robust, single-factor structure.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report Psychological Assessment Instrument

Format: 9 items utilizing a 4-point Likert scale.

Language Available: English (Original Study Language)

Population Group: Youth and young adults participating in a longitudinal study.

Age Group: Adolescents (starting in grades 7-8) followed into adulthood.

Population Details: Youths initially enrolled in grades 7-8 in 1988, who were continuously followed as part of the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS).

Test Methodology: Responses are scored on a scale where Strongly disagree=1, Disagree=2, Agree=3, and Strongly agree=4. Items 2, 5, 6, 8, and 9 must be reverse coded (e.g., 1 becomes 4, 4 becomes 1) prior to calculation. The final score is derived by summing the point values of all responses and dividing by the total number of items (9), yielding an average score. Higher final scores signify a greater sense of self-esteem.

Keywords

Self-Worth, Personal Competence, Adolescent Development, Psychometrics, Reverse Coding, Likert Scale, Attitude Assessment, Youth Violence.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not available in the source compendium entry.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not available in the source compendium entry.

Correspondence Address: Correspondence regarding the use of this instrument is typically directed toward the principal investigators of the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) at the University of Albany or related institutions.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The administration of this specific scale adaptation within the RYDS began around 1988, coinciding with the initial waves of data collection for the cohort. As this instrument is a derivative of the widely available Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and was used in a federally funded, public academic study, explicit permission or fees for academic research use are generally minimal or nonexistent.

Researchers utilizing this specific item set should, however, ensure they cite the Rochester Youth Development Study as the source of the data collection methodology, as detailed in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compendium.

Reference’s

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2004). Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools (p. 150). Atlanta, GA: CDC.

• The original PDF detailing the instrument can be downloaded here: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/YV_Compendium.pdf

• Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Items of the Self-Esteem—Rochester Youth Development Study

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. In general‚ you are satisfied with yourself.
2. At times you think you are no good at all. (Reverse Coded)
3. You feel that you have a number of good qualities.
4. You can do things as well as most other people.
5. You feel you do not have much to be proud of. (Reverse Coded)
6. You feel useless at times. (Reverse Coded)
7. You feel that you are at least as good as other people.
8. You wish you could have more respect for yourself. (Reverse Coded)
9. Sometimes you think of yourself as a bad person. (Reverse Coded)